UT School of Visual & Performing Arts

Posts Tagged ‘Music Faculty’

Congratulations to CAL/SVPA faculty, Dan Hernandez, Thor Mednick, Denise Ritter-Bernardini, Stephen Sakowski, and Matt Yockey on being recognized in 2018 as faculty making Outstanding Contributions in Scholarly and Creative Activity. President Sharon Gaber and Provost Andrew Hsu sponsor the special recognition and the arts faculty received 20% of the University-wide awards.

Hernandez’s paintings explore the visual dialog between religion, mythology, and pop culture. He is represented by Kim Foster Gallery in New York City. His work is exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions and has been written about in a number of publications including ARTnews, HyperAllergic, Artillery Magazine, Arte Fuse, Gizmodo, Der Spiegel. Dan was selected for an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellency Award in 2011 and in 2015. Dan Hernandez creates intricate tableaux that blend religious iconography with the contemporary visual language of video games, two genres which somehow collapse seamlessly together in farcical send-ups of culture and society.

Thor Mednick, PhD, Art History

Thor Mednick specializes in the art of nineteenth-century Denmark, he has published on painters such as P.S. Krøyer and Vilhelm Hammershøi, and on the relationship of agricultural reform to nineteenth-century Danish landscape painting. He is the co-curator of From the Golden Age to the Modern Breakthrough: Danish Paintings from the Collection of Ambassador John L. Loeb, Jr. (New York, 2013) and Jorforbindelser: Dansk maleri 1780-1920 og det antropocene landskab (Denmark, 2017-2019).He is a former Fellow of the American-Scandinavian Foundation, the Ambassador John L Loeb, Jr Foundation, and the American Philosophical Society, and a legatee of the Danish Ministry of Culture. He has been a Visiting Scholar at the University of Copenhagen and the University of California at Los Angeles, and a Visiting Professor at Fuglsang Museum and Faaborg Museum, in Denmark.

In 2017, Mednick was invited by Dr. Karina Lykke Grand, Assistant Professor of Art History at Aarhus University, to be the international consultant on a major research project on art and national identity in nineteenth-century Denmark. The project has been given a grant of more than $1,000,000 (US) to support Dr. Grand, a doctoral student, a post-doc, and travel and research expenses for Mednick and another scholar from the University of Copenhagen. The grant comes from The Independent Research Fund, within the Danish Ministry for Higher Education and Science.

Dr. Denise Ritter Bernardini, PhD, Voice

Denise appears on both the concert and opera stage in music of many periods. She is known for her ability to sing a variety of styles, her brilliant high notes, pure tone, communicative warmth and musical intelligence. She has been a performer throughout the US with extensive Oratorio experience under the batons of world renowned conductors such as Robert Shaw and John Rutter. Her recent oratorio performances have included Verdi’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Pergolesi’s Magnificat, Bach’s Missa in A Major, Dvorak’s Te Deum, and Mozart’s Requiem.

Denise has been a soloist in prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops as well as the Actor’s Club in New York. A recent performance of her one-woman classical cabaret show took her to Leibnitz, Austria where she performed for the International University of Global Theater to an audience representing thirty-two different countries.

Stephen Sakowski, MFA, Theatrical Lighting

Stephen Sakowski has worked as the Lighting Director or Assistant Lighting Director for the major entertainment/arts events listed above. His event and television lighting work, recognized at the highest level of production, is transferred to his university productions as well.

Stephen has served as the Lighting Director/Assistant Director for the NBA All-Star Games. The National Basketball Association, (NBA) is a leading sports organization with an All-Star Game viewing audience of 7.175M in 2015, 7.614M in 2016 and 7.751M in 2017, respectively. Lighting for these half-time performances have been for some of the most internationally-known performers, including: Cirque du Soleil, Sting, The Roots, and John Legend.

Stephen has also won awards for his lighting design associated with The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, (KCACTF). KCACTF is a national theater program involving 20,000 students from colleges and universities nationwide annually. For 47 years, the organization has served as a catalyst in improving the quality of college theater in the United States. KCACTF has grown into a network of more than 700 academic institutions throughout the country. The regional groups are funded and administratively support by the Kennedy Center.

Matt Yockey, PhD, Film Studies

Yockey’s research focus is on Hollywood genres and fan studies. His essays on these topics have appeared in journals such as The Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies, The Velvet Light Trap, CineAction, Transformative Works and Cultures, Journal of Fandom Studies, The European Journal of American Studies, and Studies in Comics, as well as the anthologies Critical Approaches to the Films of M. Night Shyamalan (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), Superhero Synergies: Comic Book Characters Go Digital (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014), and The X-Men Films: A Cultural Analysis (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016). His monograph on the 1960s Batman television series was published by Wayne State University Press in 2014. He is the editor of the anthology Make Ours Marvel: Media Convergence and a Comics Universe (University of Texas Press, 2017).
Matt’s writings on culture and film can be found journals such as, the European Journal of American Studies and the Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies, and in book chapters published by such notable presses as, the University of Texas Press, Wiley Blackwell, Rowman & Littlefied, and Palgrave Macmillan. Matt also has an extensive listing of professional paper presentations.

UT to present two concerts on the Toledo Museum of Art Great Performances in the Great Gallery Series – February 14 and 21

The Toledo Museum of Art Great Performances in the Great Gallery series will include two performances – one featuring University of Toledo students and another featuring UT faculty and internationally-acclaimed baritone, Ryan De Ryke.

Sunday, February 14 at 3 p.m. voice and piano students from the UT Department of Music will perform a range of selections from operas and favorite vocal music. The following Sunday, February 21 at 3 p.m., UT professor of piano, Dr. Michael Boyd and De Ryke will perform a program of art song. Highlights from the program include Schumann’s “Dichterliebe” and a cycle of songs by The Smiths arranged by Ryan. Admission to both concerts is free and open to the public.

Current professor of piano at UT – Dr. Boyd received his undergraduate degree from the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, and his master’s and doctoral degrees from Eastman School of Music. Over the years he has given many solo recitals across the country and internationally.

Baritone Ryan De Ryke has studied at the Peabody Conservatory, the RAM, and the National Conservatory of Luxemburg. Aside from his recital career De Ryke is also a regularly traveling soloist in various oratorios. He has worked numerous operatic roles, and has had the opportunity to work with a variety of different groups such as the Haymarket Opera, El Paso Symphony Orchestra, and the Chamber of Chicago.

Dr. Michael Boyd, a University of Toledo professor, and violinist Merwin Siu of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, will perform a program of Stravinsky’s works for violin and piano, recreating a concert Stravinsky himself performed on the same stage 81 years ago with violinist Samuel Dushkin. The event is set to take place Saturday, January 23 at 2 p.m. in the Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle. Admission is free.

The University of Toledo Department of Music has long collaborated with the Toledo Museum of Art, providing many performers for the TMA’s Great performances in the Great Gallery series. “I give a lot of credit to Scott Boberg [TMA Manager of Programs and Audience Engagement], says Dr. Boyd. “The concert was his brainchild, to recreate Stravinsky’s Peristyle concert. It was a great honor to be asked to play the Peristyle and I always enjoy the opportunity to perform with such a wonderful violinist as Merwin Siu”.

Dr. Boyd, a Steinway artist and renowned pianist, is a professor of piano at The University of Toledo. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, and his master’s and doctoral degrees from Eastman School of Music. Dr. Boyd has played many solo recitals throughout the years. He has also had the honor of performing across the country and internationally as well, and has presented two music lectures in Spain.

Merwin Siu and Dr. Boyd perform regularly with cellist, Damon Coleman of the Toledo Symphony. The three comprise the Bezonian Trio, a chamber ensemble.

The UT Department of Music warmly invites you and your family to join us for one or both of two amazing holiday concert events!

Thursday, December 10 at 7 p.m., the UT Jazz Holiday concert—an annual favorite—will feature performances from all of the UT jazz ensembles, as well as special guests. The program includes a large selection of the best holiday jazz tunes. Come a little early to the concert to take photos with Santa and Mrs. Claus! Bring your cameras.

Then Sunday, December 13 at 3 p.m., the College of Communication and the Arts celebrates the season in style with its Holiday Showcase, a concert combining the musical with the theatrical. The concert is about one hour and 15 minutes and is perfect for the very young and young at heart. This concert also includes an appearance by Santa for photos with you and yours.

The students of the Art Department will hold a Holiday Art Sale before and after the CoCA Holiday Showcase concert. They will be selling student artwork, ornaments, pottery, jewelry and cards—perfect for holiday gift-giving. There will also be Art Department t-shirts and tote bags for sale. They will be happy to hold your purchases for you until after the concert. Proceeds from the sale benefit the students directly and will be used to cover the costs of student travel and scholarships.

Both concerts will be held in Doermann Theater in UT’s University Hall (the building with the University’s signature clock tower). Free parking is available in the lots nearest to Doermann (Area 13 and Area 1N). Plus, golf carts will be on hand to give you a lift to the door.

Tickets to either concert are $10 each and are just $5 for students, children and seniors. They can be purchased at the door or in advance through the UT Center for Performing Arts Box Office. Call 419.530.ARTS (2787) or go online to www.UToledo.Tix.com.

I hope you’ll join us this holiday season for one of these great concerts! For more concerts and events visit utoledo.edu/CoCAevents.

The Toledo School for the Arts Urban Jazz Collective is renowned, while for nearly 40 years, Scott High School students have played jazz music from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on WXTS-FM 88.3.

And at the University of Toledo, “we have an active jazz scene,” with talented and professionally viable musicians, said Gunnar Mossblad, UT director of jazz studies and instructor…the beautiful thing about what’s going on in the schools is that we play music from a variety of eras,” Mossblad said.

The University of Toledo Department of Music Spring Festival of New Music opens Tuesday, April 1 with two compositions dedicated to the late Bernie Sanchez and concludes with guest artist Latitude 49.

Guest Artists Latitude 49, to perform Thursday, April 3 at 7 p.m.

In between, is an exciting and varied mix of new music in virtually every genre. A total of three concerts will be presented, one each night at 7 p.m., Tuesday, April 1 through Thursday, April 3 in the UT Center for Performing Arts Recital Hall. All concerts in the festival are free and open to the public.

The UT Spring Festival of New Music is one of the highlights of the cultural year for both the campus and the Toledo music community. For 37 years, guest composers and performers have interacted with students and faculty, resulting in exciting concerts and presentations on campus. The Festival has also sponsored premiere performances of student and area composers.

TUESDAY, April 1 This year, the winner of the student composer contest will be announced at the Faculty and Student Chamber Music Concert, which kicks off the Festival on Tuesday. In addition, two works – “Tribute in Brass” for brass quintet, composed by UT professor Dr. David Jex, and “To the West Wind,” composed by Music faculty member Dr. Lee Heritage, will also be premiered at this concert.

Bernie Sanchez (1935-2013), former UT Music Department chair, performer, teacher, conductor, & advocate for music and the arts.

Both compositions honor the memory of UT Professor Emeritus Bernard Sanchez, who passed last October. Professor Sanchez retired after serving for more than 30 years at UT and in our area as a performer, teacher, conductor, department chairman, and advocate for music and the arts.

Heritage said, “While I was composing this quintet, the news came suddenly – and with a great sense of shock and tragedy – that Bernie had died. I was deeply saddened, and gradually realized that the second movement of my woodwind quintet was taking shape as an elegy to our great friend. The movement is set for flute solo, singing an angular, emotional melody, accompanied by somber chords in the rest of the quintet.”

“To the West Wind” will be performed by the Toledo Symphony Woodwind Quintet. The instrumentalists are Joel Tse, flute; Michele Tosser-Smith, oboe; Georg Klaas, clarinet; Sandra Clark, horn; and Gareth Thomas, bassoon.

The “Tribute in Brass” quintet will be performed by UT faculty members David Jex, Alan Taplin, Dan Harris, Andrew Rhodes, and features guest trumpeter David Kosmyna, a UT alumnus who is currently Professor of Music at Ohio Northern University.

The Good, The Bad, and The Blues – to perform Tuesday, April 2 at 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, April 2 The second concert of the Festival is an eclectic mix of new music in a variety of genres. The Good, The Bad, and The Blues!, a funk, fusion quartet, will perform a set of original songs. They are 4-time Black Swamp Blues Society Challengers, and were among the International Blues Challengers Semi-finalists of 2013 in Memphis.

UT graduate student and teaching assistant Christina Eck, an electronic music composer, singer and songwriter, will be performing her album “Diamond in the Rough,” featuring a collection of four original songs. Stephen Mariasy, a UT Film/Video student, will present his new composition “Raindance,” all realized by virtual-instrument, computer-based digital sound.

David Mariasy, Senior Lecturer of Music Technology will debut his new composition, “Requiem for Violin and Digital Orchestra.” Performing on the work will be violin soloist, Cecilia Johnson, a member of the strings faculty at UT. Video projections will be part of the concert as well, produced by Holly Hey, Associate Professor of Film and Head of Film at UT.

THURSDAY, April 3 Concluding the festival is guest artist Latitude 49. The music of Latitude 49 explores new sounds, engaging diverse audiences, and holding hands with composers of today. Twice featured by the Michigan Muse magazine, the group’s University of Michigan roots have grown to include performances on stages across the Midwest and public radio. L49’s top priority is to foster future audiences by creating dynamic concert experiences that give a voice to some of today’s hottest composers.

Dr. Olman E Piedra, the assistant professor of Percussion and Jazz studies at The University of Toledo, received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in December from Bowling Green State University. Previously, he received two Master’s in Music degrees, in Percussion Performance and in Improvisation from the University of Michigan, and a BM from Baylor University. Dr. Piedra is an educational artist/clinician for Remo drumheads and Innovative Percussion.

As an active and versatile jazz, contemporary, Latin American, and concert musician, Dr. Piedra can be heard on William Bolcom’s Grammy award winning album “Songs Of Innocence And Of Experience” with Leonard Slatkin, conductor, on His Name Is Alive’s “Detrola”, and “Sweet Earth Flower, a tribute to Marion Brown”, NOMO’s “New Tones”, “The Dreamer” by jazz guitarist/composer Paul Cohn, “Reaching for the Moon” with Morgen Stiegler, “Gran Danzón” with Martha Councell-Vargas, and with the University of Toledo Jazz faculty ensemble CrossCurrents on their debut album on Summit Records.

Dr. Piedra left Costa Rica in 1998 to further his music studies and pursue a musical career in the United States. He has performed with a variety of ensembles, including the Sphinx Orchestra (principal percussion), the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, the Waco Symphony Orchestra, the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, the Toledo Jazz Orchestra, the Ensamble de Percusión Costa Rica, the Toledo Symphony Percussion Trio, Italian pop artist Patrizio Buanne, NOMO (toured around the United States, Canada, and Europe), Roland Vazquez’ Latin Jazz Combo (Percussive Arts Society International Convention), vocalist Lauren Kinhan (from The New York Voices), Ken Thomson and Slow/fast, David Bixler’s I-75 ensemble, and the University of Toledo jazz faculty group at the third annual JEN convention in Louisville, KY. Olman has also been performing alongside Grammy Award winning artists The New York Voices at Bowling Green State University’s vocal jazz camp since 2009.

“Just so you know: this recital hall is tornado safe,” said Michael Boyd, University of Toledo’s resident piano guru, at the start of the second Dorothy MacKenzie Price recital Sunday in the Center for Performing Arts.

Well, there were storms of many kinds that day, but the best and most constructive happened inside the hall.

There, Teresa McCollough, a longtime friend of Boyd and busy performer, shared some of her impressive performing gifts with a large and enthusiastic crowd.

The dual-ing pianists first met at Eastman School of Music, where both earned graduate degrees.

McCollough wound up in San Francisco, where Boyd has been doing some performing in recent years.

So, it was time to bring her back eastward, for a powerfully symmetrical program that skated along the edge of music from the 20th century – McCollough’s passion.

Boyd joined McCollough for the double-keyboard opener, The Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues. It summoned the machine-like force and rhythm of Elias Howe’s invention to open, revealing the simple melody which morphed into a bluesy theme, winding up gently in a simulation of a mill shutdown.

By contrast, Picker’s languid musical exploration for solo piano meandered like the two Southern waterways in its name, Old and Lost Rivers.

Rzewski’s second piece, Down by the Riverside, opened with the old melody directly offered, then proceeded to disassemble it into smaller phrases, mixing quotes from other songs in for contrast.

Still, the big hit of the program came post-intermission, when the old college buddies tackled Igor Stravinsky’s huge and tumultuous Rite of Spring in an arrangement which came from the composer via both Boyd’s and McCollough’s studios.

It was a great tribute to the ground-breaking composer on the centennial of this major work.

The level of ensemble was exquisite, as if a single brain drove both pairs of hands. And both brought no-holds-barred power plus estimable finesse to their performances.

Hearing this piece from a single instrument was a revelation.

As Boyd said afterward, “It’s like watching a film in black-and-white.”

While no one would trade the color and texture of a big orchestra playing it, what emered so clearly were Stravinsky’s complex construction, enormous dynamic contrasts, and melodic and harmonic depictions of season.

Enjoying it, of course, was major benefactor Dorothy MacKenzie Price, who not only funds the season but also had provided the big Yamaha concert grand on which McCollough performed.